Swift on need to be ‘switched on’ to earn Villa victory

Royals midfielder John Swift is expecting a response and a reaction from Reading when they visit Aston Villa this Saturday.

A heavy defeat in Norwich last weekend still stings; he believes the team need to be more alert and proactive if they are to get back to winning ways.

“The fans have backed us since we’ve started; we’ve got great results in the way that we play,” explained the midfielder. “On Saturday that didn’t come off and Norwich were the better team on the day. But we won’t let one result define our season. It’s a good season so far and we’ve still got five games to go.

“We’ve looked at tactics and how we’re going to go into the game, with everyone switched on and not thinking that we’re in the play-offs already.

“It’s mostly a case of everyone being switched on really – we go into every game wanting to win and playing how we want to, but last Saturday we were all second to everything.

“So we’ll go into the Villa game with the same approach but we’ll be doing whatever we can to come out on top.”

There is little riding on the final five for the hosts; their ambitions of a return to the Premier League at the first time of asking have fallen shy, despite investment in their side.

But Swift expects a challenge in every fixture in the end of the campaign, and knows the Royals still have work to do to book a top-six finish.

“You look forward to going to these big teams, with big stadiums and big crowds,” he continued. “All the boys are looking forward to it. But the main thing for us is to perform so that we leave the pitch happy.

“We can’t look at it as though we’ve done it – we’ve still got huge games to come. The teams below us have important games too and anything can happen.

“So we’ll go into every game by analysing the previous one and trying to be better in the next. Going and getting wins on Saturday and Monday would help us a lot.”